04/01/2007

2007 to be 'warmest year yet'

2007 is likely to be the warmest year on record across the world, according to the UK's Met Office.

According to the Met Office, the global temperature in 2007 is expected to be 0.54°C above the long-term (1961 - 1990) average of 14°C and there is a 60% chance that this year will be as warm or warmer than the current warmest year of 1998.

Forecasters said that the potential for record temperatures in 2007 arises partly from a moderate strength El Nino - a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon which is the most prominent known source of inter-annual variability in weather and climate around the world - already established in the Pacific, which is expected to persist through the first few months of 2007.

The Met Office said that the lag between El Nino and the full global surface temperature response means that the warming effect of El Nino is extended and therefore has a greater influence on the global temperatures during the year.

The forecast of annual temperature is compiled by the Met Office's Hadley Centre and has been issued for the past seven years. The centre says that it has a mean forecast error size of just 0.06°C.

The Met Office announcement follows the news that 2006 was the warmest year on record across the UK. Autumn 2006 was also exceptionally mild over many parts of Europe.

Katie Hopkins from Met Office Consulting said: "This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world."

(KMcA)

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